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Interview: Harry McVeigh of White Lies

“We’re so excited,” singer Harry McVeigh told me during our conversation about everything that’s happening for his up-and-coming band White Lies, who has been touring nearly non-stop and recently visited Los Angeles twice for EP Death. Though the band’s full-length, To Lose My Life, isn’t out until January, White Lies has already performed at New York’s CMJ, has an upcoming U.K. tour with Glasvegas and is slotted for next year’s Coachella. How’s that for momentum? Demonstrating an impressive work ethic, the U.K. trio views these early tours and showcases as a valuable learning opportunity, and that’s no lie.

The Scenestar: Thanks for taking the time to chat with me. How’s the tour going?Harry McVeigh: No problem. The tour has been really good.

SS: With the debut album not out until next year, how has the audience reaction been?HMV: It’s very strange I suppose. It’s very weird playing to a load of people who have never really heard your stuff before. It’s the same in the U.K. Most people have only heard two tracks: “Unfinished Business” and “Death.” And over here, people have probably only heard “Death.” So it’s a very strange experience, but it’s good. It teaches you a lot. And you have to play really good shows to impress people without them knowing the tracks.

SS: Definitely. I heard a lot of positive feedback on the White Lies’ summer show at the Echo. Why did the band decide to tour then and schedule another tour now, both before the album release?HMV: We definitely want to try and be an international band, and in order to do that, you have to do a lot of touring everywhere, worldwide. And also, it’s a really good experience. It’s a very good learning process for us to just tour as much as possible, especially around the world and through America. You just learn a lot about how best to play with each other but also how to get along and how to travel well. So it’s just a really good experience for us, a really valuable experience that we’ll be able to use to our advantage. And also, the small number of people that you play to in the U.S., maybe the next time you go there, they would have told a friend and there will be a big crowd there to play to. It’s just building up from the bottom and working really hard.

SS: The band has certainly been building buzz, especially after playing at CMJ. What was that experience like?HMV: It was amazing! I love New York so much. I always have such a good time there. It was really great. We played two shows there, one at the Bowery Ballroom, which is an amazing venue. It’s a legendary venue, and it was really cool to play there.

SS: Did you check out any new bands that you would recommend?HMV: We saw a band called Boy Crisis. In fact, we saw them in Iceland as well. And currently, they’re releasing a single on our drummer’s [Jack Lawrence-Brown] label in the U.K. It’s a really small label. They’re a really great band.

SS: Oh, I didn’t know Jack has a label.HMV: It’s just a small label that puts out singles every now and then called Chess Club.

SS: White Lies’ music has often been described as dark and moody. Do you think that’s a fair description?HMV:We’re very conscious of that, and Charles [Cave, bassist] is very conscious of that. That’s the kind of subject matter that he wants to deal with through his lyrics, and that’s the stuff that he wants to write about. That’s what the whole band is sort of aiming toward and trying to sound like.

SS: Are you guys pretty moody?HMV: [Laughs] No, in real life, we’re pretty grounded and normal people. We just like writing songs about dark things. We’re pretty happy in real life.

SS: I noticed with the band’s official site that it’s very media-friendly, and White Lies is on almost all the social networking sites, from MySpace and Facebook to Bebo. Do you feel that kind of media savvy is important for new bands?HMV: It’s definitely important. I think you’d be an idiot not to do it, especially MySpace. It’s like a directory for every band in the world. If you want to hear what a band’s music sounds like, you just type their name into MySpace and find four tracks and find out when the band’s on. It’s really useful. I don’t know what A&R guys would do without MySpace.

SS: Very true. And your music video for “Death” is on there as well, which I just watched today. Could you talk a little bit about the premise?HMV: I think with most things that we do, we always try and make it as coherent as possible with the music. The video is just trying to capture the feel of the song or at least the director’s [Andreas Nilsson] interpretation of the song. And I think he did it really well, ’cause the song doesn’t really have a story to it. It’s very metaphorical. I think that’s what he was trying to do, put it in a setting of suburbia... Actually, it was shot in Sweden but it was meant to be American suburbia.

SS: The band has a U.K. tour with Glasvegas scheduled for the rest of the year, and then what’s next?HMV: Well, the album’s out January, so I think it’s just lots of touring. We’re doing the NME Awards Tour in the U.K. We’ll be out in America again in March and April. And just touring. Lots of touring. Obviously the album’s coming out, so we’re really excited about that. We worked really hard on it, and we’re excited to see what people think of it ’cause no one’s really heard it.

The excitement is clearly spreading. You can hear both “Unfinished Business” and “Death” on the band’s MySpace right now, and keep an eye out for the White Lies next year at Coachella and possibly more local shows.